Diane Ladd

Flo, the sharp-tongued waitress Ladd plays in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), is a useful place to begin: the bite matters, but so does the rapport. We rate Ladd for giving outspoken supporting characters more to do than deliver the rude line and disappear. Her comedy allows vulnerability without insisting that we stop laughing to acknowledge it. The reservation is that she sometimes presses too hard, particularly when the surrounding film is doing much the same.

Her breakthrough came in 1974, after years of small film roles, with two films that used her in different ways. Ladd’s Ida Sessions is part of Roman Polanski’s finely acted detective story Chinatown (1974), with Jack Nicholson’s persuasive confidence giving us good reason to be uneasy. We recommend the film without much hesitation, despite plotting that occasionally demands patience. Ladd need not be its centre to belong among its pleasures. It is worth remembering Ida Sessions before treating the more florid mothers as the whole of her work.

David Lynch’s Wild at Heart (1990) casts her as Marietta Fortune, a vengeful mother opposite Laura Dern. Ladd plays broadly enough to make the anger comic as well as threatening, although the exaggeration can become wearing. We grew impatient with the film’s strained humour and wandering pace; Nicolas Cage and Dern held our attention when those began to test it. Ladd’s intensity fits, but it also contributes to the strain. We find enough to recommend considering the film, not enough to excuse all its excesses.

The later work included Mrs Hillyer in Rambling Rose (1991), another screen pairing with Dern, and Mimi, the grandmother in David O. Russell’s Joy (2015). The recurrent maternal casting makes sense for an actor who could combine authority with vulnerability, though it should not make us forget the waitress or Ida Sessions. Start with Flo for the comedy and rapport; approach Marietta with some patience for the film around her.